THE DONALD had a couple of stumpers ripe for the 4th podium. First the players could not connect the BUGS MEANIE category from the J! round to Bugs (Meany) from the Donald Sobol detective books and then there was silence to name the Donald that went with Walter Becker to make Steely Dan.

If you want to sneak a last name only by Alex you have to do it with confidence. Brandon was not even close with his uncertainty on, “Who is Williams?” Definitely a BMS on that one.

Back to six clues not played including DD3. Not good.

The FJ! clue had me sure of the guy and then I had to decide whether to add the specification. I went for the complete response while anticipating that the judges would accept the shorter response that Lindsay & Matt ended up writing.

I noticed the scoreboard showed the possibility of a 5200-5200 finish or Brandon losing by a buck. That scenario was gone when Lindsay’s correct response was shown. And the carousel is open for business again.

High school German classes paid off with the ability to translate fast to schnell. A working knowledge of Hogan's Heroes would be an adequate substitute.

I'm a bit bummed that the J! round clues left uncovered were all in the Luther category. I could have picked up another answer or three there. The missed Literature questions in the DJ round were fine with me.

Guessed Cicero for FJ. Researching after watching the show tells me I was one century too early. I suppose someone else is going to tell me he didn't have a famous uncle, either. I'm claiming a small victory in that I could name a Roman from something close to the right time period. Hopefully I can remember these little tidbits for later use.

I had to laugh a bit when Lindsay took up a drawl when picking a clue in the Tarnation category. You gotta have your fun where you can.

Pliny the Younger is a triple IPA brewed by Russian River Brewing Company. It is released on the first Friday in February (mark your calendars, girls and boys!) and is available for only two weeks of the year. People from all over North America make the trek to Santa Rosa and line up for it.

Guessed Cicero for FJ. Researching after watching the show tells me I was one century too early. I suppose someone else is going to tell me he didn't have a famous uncle, either. I'm claiming a small victory in that I could name a Roman from something close to the right time period. Hopefully I can remember these little tidbits for later use.

You did much better than Brandon then. Let's see...category and clue asks for a Roman from the 1st century AD. He gives a Greek from the 5th century BC. It's all too easy to bunch all ancient history into one big mass, but really, that mistake is like a clue asking for a 20th century American president and the contestant providing a European monarch from the 15th century.

Then again, I don't know that Brandon wasn't just stuck and going with the "at least write SOMETHING even if you know it's wrong" philosophy. And I have to confess that my knee-jerk response was Pompey the Younger - yes, apparently this person did exist, the son of Pompey the Great, close to the right time, too - until I realized my mistake in time and switched to Pliny the Younger.

Where did the writers get the idea that "grody" comes from "grotesque"? I always assumed it came from "gross" which is what it more or less means. American Heritage says it's "probably" an alteration of "grotty" which is a British slang alteration of "grotesque". I need them to show more work on this one before I believe it. Valley Girls wouldn't be familiar with British slang and don't know the word "grotesque".

Lach trash on Decalogue, Encyclopedia Brown (including recognizing the name Bugs Meanie when it first showed), and SCHNELL!!!! (which I know from Das Boot.) Would've gotten lach trash on Pink Martini if I could've convinced myself they were actually asking for something that obscure.

Ran the Donalds category although if I'd been playing for real, I might have chickened out on Donald Fagan. I own one Steely Dan CD (Aja) and just don't get their music at all. I don't hate it but it's like listening to nothing in particular.

Alex said "Singing in the Rain" when the clue said "Singin'".

Got Pliny the Younger. Do NOT agree with letting the contestants get away with just Pliny. That's an obvious case of BMS if I've ever seen one. What next? Will they accept "Who is Roosevelt?" "Who is Caesar?" In this case, the clue even mentioned PtheY's famous uncle so you wouldn't accidentally pick the wrong one.

Socrates wasn't the greatest guess on Brandon's part. Over 400 years too early and he didn't actually write anything. I predicted at the beginning of this show that Brandon was finally going to be on top going into FJ and then lose. He did not disappoint. Congrats to Brandon for being our first returning champ of 2018 and for being great fun to watch, especially on his first win. Congrats to Lindsay for hanging in there and pulling out a win.